[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 74 (Monday, May 1, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E575]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  HONORING THE DEFENDERS OF BATAAN AND CORREGIDOR AND REMEMBERING THE 
               FALL OF BATAAN AND CORREGIDOR IN MAY 1942

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. DAVID B. McKINLEY

                            of west virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 1, 2017

  Mr. McKINLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the Defenders of 
Bataan and Corregidor in remembrance of the 75th Anniversary of the 
fall of Bataan and Corregidor in May of 1942. From December 8, 1941 
until May 6, 1942 American soldiers, marines, sailors, nurses and 
airmen fought along-side the members of Philippine army in defense of 
the Philippine Archipelago.
  On December 8, 1941, a day after the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor, 
bombs were dropped on Clark Field, starting what would become known as 
the Philippine Campaign or the Battle of the Philippines.
  On April 9, 1942, after fighting for four months without 
reinforcements and supplies, Major General Edward King, Jr. surrendered 
the forces under his command on the Bataan Peninsula. Upon surrender of 
the American and Filipino forces, the Japanese encountered twice as 
many captives as reports had estimated, thus creating an enormous 
logistical challenge--the transport and movement of over 60,000 
starving, sick, and debilitated prisoners and over 38,000 equally 
weakened civilian noncombatants that had been caught up in the battle. 
The prisoners and refugees had to be moved north to get them out of the 
way of the final Japanese assault on Corregidor, but there was simply 
not enough mechanized transport to move the masses of wounded, sick, 
and weakened prisoners. The Japanese solution was to force march the 
60,000 prisoners north from Mariveles to San Fernando and from Capas to 
Camp O'Donnell--a distance of approximately 66 miles.
  This has become known as the Bataan Death March. Starting on April 9, 
1942 and lasting for seven days, credible sources report widely 
differing prisoner of war casualties--from 5,000 to 18,000 Filipino 
deaths and 500 to 650 American deaths--that resulted. Forced to march 
without food or water, many simply could not continue. Prisoners were 
bayoneted, shot or buried alive if they could not walk. If any tried to 
escape they were shot.
  The final assault on American and Filipino forces in defense of the 
Philippines came on May 5, 1942 with an assault on the island of 
Corregidor and ended on May 8, 1942--when General Jonathan M. 
Wainwright surrendered forces under his command to the Japanese 
commander, Lt. General Masaharu Homma of the 14th Japanese Army, thus 
ending the Battle for the Philippines.
  For the next three and a half years Americans were held by the 
Japanese in the Philippines, Formosa, Korea, China and Japan in POW 
camps and forced to work for Japanese companies in support of the 
Japanese war effort. When Japan finally surrendered, American forces 
sent to Japan found these men and women emaciated--some weighing as 
little as a third of their normal weight. Suffering for three and a 
half years, these men and women endured unspeakable hardships and 
atrocities at the hands of their captors.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring and 
remembering those who suffered so much in the name of freedom during 
World War II on this, the 75th Anniversary of the Bataan Death March 
and the Battle for the Philippines. We are eternally grateful for men 
such as Ed Jackfert of Wellsburg, West Virginia--who is still with us--
as well as those who have recently passed such as Joe Vater, Abie 
Abraham and Lester Tenney. These men were part of the Greatest 
Generation and fought in defense of their country during World War II.

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